Overall Market Size - Term Paper Example

Introduction to Marketing By SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (OUTSOURCED) Overall market size Social media marketing is a niche market in online marketing and it is growing fast and steadily into a commercial industry all by itself, thanks to the many developments in the social media platforms. Ever since social media advertising began being utilized by already established big corporations, many more companies are rushing to incorporate this form of advertising to achieve success in boosting sales, establishing a reputable online presence and creating a huge fan base in regards to their brand. More and more small, medium sized businesses are now outsourcing social media marketing services from the social media companies that have since been established and now, looking to dominate the industry. The overall market size for the social media advertising companies cannot be estimated precisely because to do so, one will need to count the ever-growing number of companies and institutions being established daily, and who essentially need to market their products. Thousands of existing companies and institutions are already outsourcing social media services, so an estimate of 50% of all businesses countrywide would be an appropriate market size, for now. main product segments Social media marketing has main product segments. These include: 1. Placing adverts for companies and institutions on all the six most popular social media platforms. These include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google Plus+ and You Tube. The choice of platforms to use depends on the social media sites preferred by the client and most importantly, the nature of products and serviced being advertised. 2. Content creation and campaign management services. In an effort to marketing a particular product or service, there has to be a campaign to sensitize its use and the content in that campaign needs to be original. 3. Generating traffic on social media pages belonging to clients, in order to create a loyal fan base and promote brand visibility. 4. Research, monitoring and analysis of social media marketing.- success depends on your ability to measure and understand your efforts. Community measurement is an essential tool in social media marketing. Trends/projections (value/volume) 1. Companies are placing very high value on social media currently- A significant 92% of Companies and institutions indicate that social media is vital for their business, up from 86% in 2013. 2. The top areas businesses want to flourish in are tactics and engagement processes - At least 89% of companies want to use the most effective social tactics and engagement plans for their social media audience. 3. In future companies plan to blog more-68% of businesses are planning to increase their use of blogs, and are making it a top priority. 4. Businesses want to make the most out of Google+ - While 54% of big corporations are using Google+, 65% of smaller companies want to know more about it and 61% plan on increasing Google+ activities this year. 5. Podcasting is on growth trajectory-Though only 6% of companies have utilized podcasting in their advertising, 21% plan to increase their podcasting activities this year. That is triple the increase and 28% of businesses want to learn more about it. 6. Businesses cite Facebook and LinkedIn as the two most important social networks for their marketing and advertising. When forced to select one platform, 54% selected Facebook and 17% selected LinkedIn. Market share and market focus main competitors in the market Our main competitors in the market include the following; We Are Social We Are Social is an UK based agency that specializes in digital PR and social media marketing. It focuses on delivering innovative, creative and effective social media marketing for its clients who include Sky, The Guardian, ESPN, Intel and Adidas. It was founded on June 2008 and is based in London, UK. It has offices in cities such as New York, Munich, Paris, Milan, Singapore and Sydney. With about 270 staff, What Makes the company unique is its regularly updated blog that has become a valuable social media marketing tool. We Are Social has a reputation for spotting trends and approaching existing concepts in new light. It has won several awards previously. For instance, in The Grocer Marketing, Advertising & PR Awards 2012, EMEA SABRE Awards 2012 and The Drum New Years Honours 2012 it was awarded Digital & Social Media Agency of the Year . e-Dologic Based Ramat Gan, Israel, e-Dologic focuses on creating digital campaigns. This agency has initiated thousands of online campaigns so far. Its success is attributed to its combination of big ideas and modern advancement in technology to come up with brilliant campaigns. It was founded in 1999 and has staff of over 30 employees. Coca-Cola Zero, Orange and Actimel are some of its major clients. e-Dologic is responsible for an array of innovative campaigns that have been successful for several years now. An example would be the Coca-Cola Zero puzzle . Altimeter Group Founded in June 2008, this San Mateo, California, based social media marketing company provides research for companies and advices them appropriately on where to explore or establish new business models or practices. It also produces a number of reports looking into a variety of social media advertising platforms and other online-based solutions to help business build their brands and understand the platforms better. It has a staff number of 23, currently and some of its clients include Royal Dutch Shell, eBay, Ford Motor, and Toyota. What makes the company unique is that despite being a small group, its focus, expertise and knowledge has seen it acquire a list of admirers. It has high-quality blogs, reports and webinars. These items are all well detailed with information that is bound to be of help in the end. Identify the markets consumer segments Social media marketing service has a number of market consumer segments, since the business deals with people. People, now potential customers of your client company, can fall into different categories in regards to different aspects. These aspects include age, geography, gender, profession and even better, attitude and behaviour. Categories in age include the teenagers, young adults, adults and the old. If a client company for instance deals with publishing entertainment magazines, as their social media marketing company, we would want to target the teenagers and young adults on social media. If for example, an insurance company outsourced their social media marketing to us, we will target their advertisements and campaigns to young adults and adults on various social media platforms. The gender category obviously includes male or female, therefore, companies selling goods or products meant for men only, or women only, can outsource their social media marketing to us. It is however, better to categories people in relation to their attitude, tastes and preferences, otherwise known as psychographic segmentation. The reason social media marketing companies have so many consumer segments is because those who offer this service can use monitoring tools to gain deeper insight into the end consumer’s sentiments about a product or service and can therefore advice any client (company accordingly). This ability stretches across all platforms and this makes the social media marketing business very diverse indeed. Macro and Global environmental influences on the market, including positive and negative influences Our social media marketing business targets mostly retail businesses. Macro environment influences our market in several ways. It is general knowledge that all retail companies function within a “macro environment,”. In simple terms, a company’s sphere of influence has significant impact on how a company carries out its business. The macro environment influences includes factors such as economy, technology, society and government. Our market,(retailers) have to understand the role played by each those factors to compete within their respective industries and in order to seek our social media marketing services. Technology Besides offering new, faster and efficient ways of creating products, most companies and businesses use technology in their daily operations. Social media marketing would not be possible were it not for technology such as computers and smart phones. Technological advancements like the Internet have enabled customers choose from a variety of retail shopping options, and our job as retail’s social media marketers is to make sure their customers choose that particular retail store over the rest. Without technology, there would not be things such as fan base and social media platforms to begin with. Neither would there be web-based retailers like Amazon.com. Can you imagine a world without computerized billing systems? There would be way fewer businesses than there are now, and the existing businesses would still be using old methods of marketing such as printing advertisements on newspaper. Government Laws, policies and other government regulations can have several positive or negative effects on any industry. Government intervention, like offering government-sponsored loans and subsidies, go a long way in helping fledged companies grow or enable an established company keep costs relatively low for consumers. Government policies can however, stall businesses through imposing policies that increase costs in a way that it makes it impossible for the businesses to afford producing the products or for consumers to purchase the goods. The businesses also expect the government to establish suitable infrastructure such as telecommunications and energy industries. These will go a long way to ensure smooth flow of business, thereby creating opportunities for more businesses to start. This will serve to the social media marketer’s best interest because the more companies their are, the more clients they get. Economic Factors The economic environment drives retail sales. A healthy economy translates into an increase in consumers spendable income, thereby increasing sales and encourages retailers to sell more goods. Otherwise, a sluggish economy discourages consumers from spending, hence contributing to decline in sales and possibly forcing some retailers out of business. Economic and governmental factors sometimes overlap in regards to things such as import and export policies, corporate taxation, and inflation, thereby reducing the consumer’s ability to purchase products or seek services. Social Factors Shifts in social preferences and trends impact the goods sold retailers and how these retailers relate to their consumers. Businesses are in constant pressure to initiate and implement socially responsible / acceptable business practices, like selling environmentally friendly products, having warnings or restrictions placed on potentially harmful goods, and disposing off recalled or products from their shelves. Most businesses have found it important to connect with their customers on social media platforms and use it as a media for customer care and public relations tool. These factors in essence, form part of the social media services we offer to clients. We would want to know what consumers expect from suppliers, and in case of any burning issue, social media is a good way for either side to reach out to the other. For example, if a customer is dissatisfied with a particular issue, they can seek clarification on their supplier’s social media page. If the supplier with to apologise to the customers on certain issues, they can do so on the same platform too. Retailers that fail to conform to new social norms often lose business to companies that are willing to adapt to changing societal values. Conclusion/Overview of market and identification of possible market opportunities. So far, we are impressed with the market that is ready to try out what we have to offer as social media marketers. More marketing opportunities are presenting themselves as a result. These opportunities include video coverage, photography, website and graphic design. The whole process of social media marketing borrows from some of these fields. For example, to create presentable advertisements, we need a good graphic designer, and to create good campaigns, we have to create good videos for the respective You-tube channels. References FRIEDRICHSEN, M. (2012). Handbook of Social Media Management: Value Chain and Business Models in Changing Media Markets. Berlin, Springer Verlag. FRIEDRICHSEN, M. (2012). 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